Information that traditionally has been distributed on physical media is now commonly distributed in electronic form via electronic networks. For example, information that has traditionally appeared in printed books, magazines, and newspapers, is now distributed electronically via the Internet and World Wide Web (“Web”). Home video games, which traditionally have been distributed using physical cartridges, compact disks (CDs), and/or digital video disks (DVDs), are now distributed electronically at services such as, for example, MICROSOFT® XBOX Live (www.xbox.com), that are accessible via the Internet. Similarly, music recordings, which traditionally have been distributed using CDs and other physical media, are now distributed electronically via Internet services such as, for example, MICROSOFT® Zune Marketplace (www.zune.net). Indeed, entertainment content of all types—motion pictures, photographs, music recordings, novels, articles, etc.—which traditionally have been distributed on physical media are candidates to be distributed electronically at services accessible via electronic networks.
Existing on-line services typically download digital content to the electronic device from which the request for digital content was made. For example, when a gaming console user requests to download digital content from an on-line service, the requested digital content, which may be a game, video, music, etc., is downloaded to the gaming console from which the request was made. Similarly, when a user of a portable media player requests to download digital content, the data is downloaded to the media player associated with the request.
Conventionally, digital content downloads from on-line services begin upon activation by the user at the requesting device. The length of time required for a particular download varies depending upon the size of the digital content item and the availability of bandwidth. If more than one content item is requested, the queuing of requests is generally directed at the requesting device. Typically, the requests are queued and downloaded in the order that they were entered.